The Quick Fix
by Rain Crow
Summary: A short fic about an inventor mouse, a dripping faucet, and the consequences of placing the two in close proximity.


**"The quick fix"**

By Rain Crow

Gadget was lazing on the couch, her eyes nearly shut and her mind dozing. It was June, and a Saturday, and all of the others were off doing whatever it was that they were doing. She had been up late the night before fixing up the Ranger Wing, which had sustained some damage in their last run-in with Fat Cat's goons. After Chip had declared the day, "officially free", she'd felt like taking a well deserved nap while letting a warm breeze flow though the open windows.

The comfortable cushions, pleasant air and general weariness had just nearly put her under when her ears picked up an unwelcome noise.

_drip_

Gadget's left ear twitched as her mind, previously loose and comfortable, began to tighten up like a wound spring. Defiantly, she snuggled closer into the couch and placed a pillow over her face, thinking that the offending sound would not dare repeat itself while she was so fortified.

_drip...drip..._

Her tail began to tick the beat as the noise continued.

_drip, drip, drip, drip_

Snapping up one tense paw to zip the pillow off of her face, Gadget sat up, her face a mask of annoyance.

"Doggone faucet," she growled as she made her way into the kitchen, "Chip and Dale had better not've damaged it when they did the dishes this morning." It had been funny, watching the two chipmunks get into a fierce, if short lived water fight while cleaning up from breakfast, but if it had caused Gadget to miss out on her nap.... ohhhhhhhh!

She came to the sink and inspected the faucet, which was actually just a capped metal pipe with a screw down knob that was hooked into their main water line, which was in turn connected the the park's drinking water line, which ran just ten yards away from their Tree. Gadget watched as a bead of moisture formed on the lip of the faucet head.

_drip_

She frowned, and twisted the knob down tighter.

_drip_

She sighed, grabbed some of her tools from the workshop, and crawled outside to check the pressure in the main line, made an adjustment, and climbed through the kitchen window to see if that worked.

_drip_

Her right eye twitched, just a little, before her whole face brightened up. "Oh," she exclaimed, "I bet it would work if I changed the overall water pressure in the system!"

Then she ran out of the tree.

_

Dale floated on his sponge raft and enjoyed the cool water of the fountain as it lapped up against his side. Chip and Monty were doing acrobatic dives off of the centerpiece, much to the entertainment of Zipper and a little human girl who was watching them with great interest. The red nosed chipmunk was just thinking about swimming over to join them when the water stopped shooting out of the fountain head.

"Huh? What's going on?" asked Chip, who had just come up from one of his dives.

Monty frowned at the fountain, "I don't know," he said, shrugging, "Maybe they didn't pay their utility bill?"

"Hey, do you guys feel that?" Dale asked, looking at the surface of the water, which had begun to vibrate. "Are we having an earthquake?"

"RUN!" screeched Zipper, before flying off.

"Wha- oh, no!" Monty looked across the park at something that neither Chip nor Dale could see from their positions in the water. Before either of the chipmunks could ask what the mouse had seen the rumbling stopped and every water fountain, spicket and manhole in the park erupted, spewing tall geysers of city water into the air. Monty dove into the water with the other boys as their fountain bucked and began adding its own stream of H2O into the suddenly humid summer day.

"It wasn't an earthquake!" Chip shouted, angry, "Nothing else seems to be damaged!"

Monty shook his head as the water suddenly stopped, leaving only a drifting mist, "Only one force in the city could cause such less-than-lethal mayhem!"

"Gadget?" Dale shivered, wondering what this was going to do to their insurance rates.

"Well, golly," replied a familiar voice from above them. The three Rangers looked up to see their teammate floating under one of her parachutes and cutting through the rapidly evaporating water vapor, "that didn't work the way it was supposed to."

The others looked at each other as she splashed down into the water and, silently, decided that they didn't want to know.

**fin**


End file.
